Research Transparency MOOC (French)

TRANSLATED CONTENT COMING SOON! Demand is growing for evidence-based policy making, but there is growing recognition in the social science community that limited transparency and openness in research have contributed to widespread problems. With this course, you can explore the causes of limited transparency in social science research, and tools to make your own work more open and reproducible. The course has eight modules that touch on the following topics:

What is publication bias and how does it contribute to the file drawer problem? In this module, we’ll introduce you to a couple ways researchers have detected and addressed publication bias and “unlocked” the file drawer problem.

What is meta-analysis and how can it help inform good policy? In this module, Ted Miguel introduces us to meta-analysis, explores why it’s important for informing policy, and goes through a real-world example.

Documented high-profile cases of fraud in scientific research go back as far as the 19th century to Gregor Mendel, widely considered the father of modern genetics, and more recently to Sir Cyril Burt, an educational psychologist whose studies of IQ in twins have greatly influenced the continuing debate of nature versus nurture. In this module, Ted Miguel discusses historic and recent cases of scientific fraud, and explores ways to reduce scientific misconduct.

Social scientists can improve transparency in their research by using good visual representations of their data. This can be especially useful when presenting large datasets or when trying to illustrate patterns that are more easily revealed in visualizations than in tables. Statistician and political scientist Dr. Edward Tufte is well known for his book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, which Ted Miguel discusses in detail over these five videos.

The social science community is experiencing a rapid paradigm shift in regards to research transparency. This module focuses on how new practices are adopted and how scientists can continue to drive positive change.